Modes for Guitar – Part 1 – How to Start Learning Modes
At some point in every guitar players theory journey they come across a group of scales known as modes. Modes can seem pretty daunting at first but when you break down a few simple rules, they are much easier than you might think.
There are many different ways to use and learn modes, in this series of lessons I’ll be detailing my approach as a rock and blues focused guitar player and how I use Modes in my own playing.
The modes are a series of 7 scales all linked to the notes of the Major scale. For this lesson we’ll focus on the key of A. This is the A Major scale:
The A Major scale is made up of 7 notes. Each note in a scale has a number assigned to it, known as an interval. For the major scale, this is just numbers 1 – 7
| I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII |
| A | B | C# | D | E | F# | G# |
Knowing the notes and intervals of a major scale is very important in understanding modes. Each note, and interval, becomes a variable. We get different modes by changing specific notes and intervals.
In this series we’ll be learning each mode as a specific shape that fits around a pentatonic scale which means you can use them in your day to day playing. Another approach to learning modes, which is less useful for this approach, is to re-stack the notes of the major scale from each subsequent note. For example, the first mode starts from A and runs through the notes above back to A, the second mode starts from B and works through the notes back to B so on.
The A Major scale is also a mode. This is the first mode which is known as the Ionian Mode.
Modes can be split into major and minor modes, there is also a Diminished mode which you won’t get much use out of unless you’re playing Jazz or very dissonant music.
With that in mind, if the A Major Scale is a mode, we can vary certain intervals to make this into a Minor mode. The mode we’re going to create is a mode called the Aeolian Mode, which is also known as the Natural Minor Scale. Think of this as the opposing scale to the major scale.
To turn a major scale into a minor scale, the 3rd, 6th and 7th intervals need to be flattened. In this case the C# becomes a C, the F# becomes an F and the G# becomes a G. For the ease of playing, the notes have been restacked as follows:
| I | II | bIII | IV | V | bVI | bVII |
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G |
You’ll notice that this shape looks like an A Minor Pentatonic scale, but with a 2 and a b6 added. The intervals of a Minor Pentatonic scale are I bIII IV V and bVII. You’re simply adding two extra notes to an existing scale shape that you should already know by now.
The reason this is a useful way to think of Modes is because when you’re soloing in Minor Pentatonic, you now have two new note choices within your existing scale shape to give you some new sounds and textures.
You can also re-image the Major Scale or Ionian Mode in a similar Pentatonic form. This uses the Major Pentatonic as a starting point. The first shape of the Major Pentatonic is the same as the second shape of the Minor Pentatonic, but if you imagine the fifth shape of the Major Pentatonic, which is the same as the first shape of the Minor Pentatonic, you get this:
| I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII |
| A | B | C# | D | E | F# | G# |
You can see by looking at this, it is the same shape as the Natural Minor Scale (Aeolian Mode), except the root note is now played by the little finger on the Low E string, instead of the index finger. This position means you can use all your regular pentatonic licks but in a major context.
These two shapes will form the basis of the next few lessons on Modes and how to apply them to your playing with ease so spend time getting used to playing both the Major and Minor variations here.